Well, I'm "that guy" who buys the cheap gun because I have a hard time believing I'll ever get it back if it gets used as intended. Not cheap as in crap, but cheap as in inexpensive. Now that I'm in Texas, maybe it's not such a worry, but I've lived most of my life in Maryland and California, so...not known for kindness towards gun owners...
A while back, I took a chance on a Taurus 740 slim and absolutely love it for carry. I've put 1000+ rounds through it and had three failures to feed - two from the same box of range ammo, one from a different box of range ammo. I've never had a self defense round fail to feed or jam, it's the exact same dimensions as the 709 slim, but packs 7 .40 rounds. I can fit it my cargo pants pocket with a pocket holster, sits pretty comfy at the small of the back in the DiSantis IWB, and fits perfectly into my bike jacket inner breast pocket with that pocket holster as well. Shot a perfect 250 score on my concealed carry test with it, so it's accurate enough for its intended purpose. And it cost $280 (+ $25 for a second mag).